Decriminalization Documentary Extols Virtues of Legalizing Marijuana

On October 1st, 2010 Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a landmark bill into
law decriminalizing possession of less than an ounce of marijuana in the
State of California. The measure is likely to be welcomed like a cloud of
fresh smoke not only by stoners, but by local farmers as well, given that
pot is already America's #1 crop.

At least that is the thesis of Cash Crop, an alternately enlightening and
entertaining documentary by Adam Ross. The intrepid director went
underground for a year and a half to take a look at exactly who is growing
the popular herb. He devoted the bulk of his attention to Mendocino, a lush
county in the famed Emerald Triangle where such strains of particularly
potent pot as Purple Urkel, Kentucky Bluegrass, AK47, XXX, U2, Jack Hare and
Kush are being secretly cultivated.

We hear from one burnt out hippie with a license to sell medicinal marijuana
that his profession "is a business, just like selling hamburger and fries."
And it's hard to argue with his logic when you factor in the observations of
an equally-blasé sheriff inclined to look the other who concedes that
without the $10 billion generated by the crop Mendocino might be a ghost
town, because the fishing and sawmill industries have essentially
disappeared from the region.

The film goes on to advocate total legalization in order to put an end to
the escalating turf wars for control of the grass game as Mexican street
gangs migrate to the northern California countryside in search of fertile
land. The picture contrasts that predicament with that of white
Rastafarians, relatively-mellow fellows who say they imbibe the herb for
spiritual reasons.

After offering medicinal, religious, monetary and recreational rationales,
Cash Crop urgently concludes that it's high time, pardon the expression,
that California stop squandering tax dollars by prosecuting and
incarcerating folks for mass-producing marijuana. Are you listening,
Governator?